


Lustrous Grapes

by bluesyone



Category: Onward (2020)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:08:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27202940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluesyone/pseuds/bluesyone
Summary: During a quest, Ian gets tempted by some decadent fruit.  Big mistake.
Kudos: 8





	Lustrous Grapes

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a tumblr post where I thought of a quest Ian, Barley and the Manticore could go on. I thought the vile vineyards, where the lustrous grapes grow, a fruit that looks harmless and tastes decadent, but can cause various poisonous effects. Hours later, I jot this out.

Ian, Barley and Manticore made it to the valley where the vile vineyards grow. It looked like the open air temple where the dangerous vines grow is now an overgrowth of brambles that were tough as tree trunks and had spikes sharp as nails of varying sizes, from small bits of fiberglass to thick railroad spikes. The brambles twisted within themselves and grew over ancient booby traps. This turned the open air ruins into a natural labyrinth full of hidden traps, dead ends, and even small areas they had no choice but to squeeze through. Manticore warned the boys to wear old clothes that would be ruined, but Ian was still disappointed when his shirt was torn in two places, and even lost most of a sleeve.

After dodging close calls from traps and climbing over scratching and gouging brambles, the three adventurers found a part of the vineyard that was shaded by vines that were more sharing than darkening. The brambles were less deadwood colored and spiked and more thick green twisted vines, their spikes now soft curly smaller vines bursting with grapes. The grapes looked so enticing that, without even asking, Ian slowly approached a bunch hanging temptingly in his reach.

Manticore flew up and pushed him away. "Don't touch them! They're lustrous grapes."

Ian looked over her shoulder, passed her wing, to look back at them. "They look harmless."

"They're meant to look harmless," Manticore explained. "Not a single warning of their malice. Even their taste is meant to be enticing and delectable. But each grape has a poisonous effect, depending upon how ripe they are. Even the rotting ones cause certain death."

"No one eats rotten fruit anyway," Ian thought aloud.

"You're not supposed to eat any of them!!" Manticore roared, causing Ian to grip his staff and hide behind it.

"Hey, Manticore!" Barley called out, holding back some overgrowth to reveal a tunnel further into the vineyard. "I found something!"

The Manticore left to investigate the overgrown path, leaving Ian alone. Looking back, big mistake.

Ian creeped closer towards the vine, even curiouser rather than warned. Each part of the vine looked delicious and tempting. There were smaller, greener grapes, circular and pearlescent as little green pearls. Various ones showed how they grew and ripened into a darker, luscious purple, in various oblong sizes, and looking ready to burst with juices and flavor. They seemed to eventually shrivel into tempting as possible oblong gemstone shapes, looking like actual, soft, edible gemstones, their velvety skin now thin enough to see the delicious juices inside.

Thinking back to Manticore's warning, instead of being terrified of them, Ian reduced that the less ripe they are, the less dangerous they could be. So, it shouldn't hurt to taste one of the unripened green ones, right? Following that logic, Ian reached for a tiny, innocent bright green one, but plucked the one next to it because it's rounder appearance made it look more plump and enticing. It twisted off with a silent pop, leaving a drop of it's juice behind on the tip of the vine. He eyed the fruit, letting it roll around in his blue fingertips, feeling it's velvety smooth skin and it's thick meaty fruit inside. It seemed the less ripe one had little to no juice in them, while the bigger ones were almost all juice. This made him think the poison was in the liquid ones, so the unripe ones with no juice must be safe, right?

Giving in, Ian curiously tossed the tiny green fruit into his mouth and observed as he chewed. He could feel the meat of the grape mix with the saliva and it tasted... amazing! So savory, so sweet, just the right amount of tart! He instinctively reached for another one, but stopped, feeling like a second one would be dangerous. Oh, now he thinks they're dangerous? But, they didn't look, or taste dangerous. And, how dangerous could one be?

Leaving the vine be, Ian took his steps on the stone ground towards Barley and Manticore, but as he grew close, his steps slowed. He knelt down as he felt weaker, queasy. Giving up his strength to keeping himself together, Ian fell onto his hands, the sudden shift nauseating his stomach enough that he threw up his nearly digested lunch he ate before their quest.

"Ian!" Barley raced to Ian's side, stopping himself from hugging him and instead pat Ian's back as he threw up again. Ian gagged, trying to tell Barley to stop touching him, but instead threw up again.

Manticore stood tall in front of the two, looking down sternly at Ian. "You ate a lustrous grape, didn't you?" she interrogated, tapping her claw against her bicep.

"Hey! Ian would never do something as dangerous and foolish-" Barley stopped when he heard Ian throw up again, this time more violently as he was down to just the bile in his stomach. "Ah crap, he did."

Manticore knelt down and investigated. "Ian, focus. Which one did you eat?"

Ian tried to point to a green one growing nearby, but quickly went back to throwing up.

Thankfully, Manticore deduced it was a green one. " Okay, a green one. He's just going to throw up until he's completely dehydrated. We don't have much time. We got to get him to a hospital." Manticore carefully picked up Ian so he was comfortable, but can still vomit if he needed to.

"But the quest," Barley thought aloud, but still worried for his younger brother.

"He can still die from dehydration, just slower," Manticore replied.

Barley nodded. "I'll head back to Guenivere the Second and meet you at the hospital. Go!"

Sooner as Barley said go, Manticore swooped straight upward and busted through the overgrowth overhead, covering the sickened Ian from the impact. She immediately flew towards the direction of the hospital. "Hold on, Iandore! Hold on!"

Barley made a beeline out of the dungeon, back the way they came, jumped into his van and drove recklessly straight to the hospital. He was speeding and ignored nearly every stop sign and stop light, but he'll deal with the fallout from that later.

Hours later, he screeched to a halt into three parking spaces in the hospital parking lot, raced into the lobby, and after asking a few questions to some receptionists, found his way to Ian's room, where Barley finally stopped in his tracks.

Ian was lying in the hospital bed, wearing a patient gown, his arm hooked up an IV and a machine monitoring his vitals. He was asleep, with some relaxing music quietly playing from the airpods nestled in his ears. In the corner was the Manticore, sitting in a chair and reading a thick book from a fictional series based on real life stories about a troupe of adventurers. With how relaxed she looked, Barley assumed they made it in time to save Ian.

With everything appearing fine, Barley dropped to his knees and gave a long, drawn out sigh. Manticore's ear caught the sound and looked up from her book. Before she could open her mouth, Barley asked, "Is he okay?"

"Now he is," Manticore said as she got up and quietly approached Barley. "We got here by the skin of his dried hide. The doctors hooked him up to an IV to get liquid into him immediately, and then he just passed out in relief. Once I explained everything, the doctors got him settled with everything he needs to get better." The Manticore helped Barley up to his feet.

Barley quietly approached Ian. "How long does he have to stay here?"

"Just a few days," the Manticore replied. "He needs his rest after they detoxed his system to get the poison out. If he gets worse, they're gonna really have to flush his system again." Manticore softly ordered as Barley knelt down by Ian's bed. "Don't wake him. The more he sleeps, the less chance he has to puke."

"I won't wake him," Barley whispered back.

"Good. You watch him," Manticore told Barley. "I'm gonna call your parents."

Barley turned to Manticore, shocked. "You haven't called our parents yet?"

"I was more focused on watching your brother," Manticore replied, starting to leave the room for the lobby. "Now you watch him, I'm gonna step out to make a phone call."

As Manticore left, Barley turned to see Ian's eyes slowly flutter open. Looked like Ian barely had enough strength to open his eyes after the two woke him up. Barley smiled brightly and softly plucked out one of Ian's earbuds. "Hey, Ian," he said quietly and gently. "Glad you made it."

Ian was about to speak, but Barley placed two fingers to his mouth to quiet him.

"No, we didn't complete the quest," Barley explained. "We abandoned it and got you straight to the hospital. I didn't want to finish the quest without you, I wanted to make sure you survived."

Barley pulled his hand away from Ian's mouth. Ian was too weak to smile, so he let his eyes emote for him.

"Don't worry, once you're better, we'll regroup and get those elven emeralds next time. You learned your lesson, right? No more eating lustrous grapes?"

Ian softly nodded. He then grimaced as he heard his stomach groan.

Acting quick, Barley grabbed a trash can and held it up near Ian's face. He was about to pat Ian's back, til he remembered that made him feel worse before, so he just waited for Ian. Ian didn't throw up, thankfully. Instead, he rolled his head onto the pillow so he was looking up at the ceiling and closed his eyes. Barley breathed a sigh of relief, gently placed the earbud back in Ian's ear, and let him rest. Barley turned on the TV, on mute with captions on, and did some channel surfing, occasionally stopping on something good for a few minutes.

Manticore returned to the room to see Barley quietly sitting by resting Ian. After explaining their parents are on their way, she gave Barley some hot cocoa and sat down in her chair with her coffee.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally, they were going to get at least one elvin emerald for their little sister Judy. (For those who haven't read those stories, Ian and Barley have a half elf-half centaur little sister named Judy). It didn't come up in the story, so their purpose will remain ambiguous for now.


End file.
